


Breaking the Cycle

by Karios



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Autumn, Episode Tag, Episode: s11e08 The Witchfinders, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-16 16:07:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21038966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karios/pseuds/Karios
Summary: Twelve-year-old Yasmin Khan was scared and the Doctor couldn't let that stand.After all, what was the use of living in a time machine and mucking about with the whole of civilizations or the fate of worlds if you couldn't change the pasts of a pair of twelve-year-old girls?





	Breaking the Cycle

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tablelamp](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tablelamp/gifts).

> Thanks to LilacChica for betaing!

'When I see someone in trouble, I never refuse,' The Doctor had said, and she meant it. It didn't matter that the trouble had passed from Yaz's point of view, or that the Doctor hadn't seen it, or that strictly speaking there was no request for help. The sadness in Yaz's eyes while she recounted her Year From Hell was enough. 

After all, what was the use of living in a time machine and mucking about with the whole of civilizations or the fate of worlds if you couldn't change the pasts of a pair of twelve-year-old girls?

Her decision made, the day eventually saved, and her fam safely tucked abed, the Doctor carefully set up a short flight. "Sheffield, Autumn 2010, Yaz's secondary school, midday," the Doctor muttered to herself, checking that all was in order. "Watch over them for me, yeah?" she reminded the TARDIS needlessly as she locked up.

The Doctor shuffled out of the leaf-littered alley toward the school with nothing that resembled a plan beyond finding one Izzy Flint, not that that had ever stopped her before. "I'm looking for Izzy Flint," she informed the woman at the attendance and information window.

"And you are?" the attendance worker asked.

The Doctor chewed on her lower lip, thinking, when a girl's voice spoke up behind her. "That's my mum. I have a dentist appointment. Be out the rest of the day." Izzy came up even with the window, batting her eyelashes. "Isn't that right, Mummy?"

"Quite right. Mrs. Flint, that's me." The Doctor handed over the psychic paper as proof of ID, scribbled a signature in the check-out book, and then Izzy towed her out of the building.

Izzy dropped her hand once they were across the street and spun on the Doctor, frowning. "What do you really want, since we both know you're not my mum?" 

The Doctor was still surprised that had worked and didn't have an immediate answer. She realized, slightly sadly, that the only reason that ruse had a chance would have been because Izzy's actual mother had never been to her daughter's school before.

"Don't get me wrong. I'll go with anyone who gets me out of Mr. Jay's history test, but if you're some kind of nutter, I'll scream," Izzy informed the Doctor proudly.

"I thought you could use a fun afternoon," the Doctor said. "We can go anywhere you like. Though, between you and me, I like history. Very useful subject."

"Yeah, yeah." Izzy waved this off. "I'm hungry. Can we go for chips?"

"Lead the way to the chippy, then!"

Thirty minutes later, Izzy was happily tucking into a second plate of chips and a vanilla malted, chomping and slurping with enthusiasm, when she took a second stab at the Doctor's identity. "If you're not a nutter, are you dating Daddy then? You're not the first one to try being friendly."

"I'm definitely not dating your father. I'm more like a fairy Godmother. But instead of changing pumpkins or helping you meet princes, I just take good kids on trips for the day."

Izzy jutted out her chin. "I'm not a good kid."

"Yeah? Who says?"

"Everyone."

"I don't put much stock in everyone. Yaz seems to think you needed a break."

"Yasmin Khan is weird," Izzy declared with the confidence of someone who'd made her mind up based on almost nothing at all.

"So? A woman who shows up in the middle of a school day to take you out for chips is pretty weird. Sometimes, weird is good."

"I guess so," Izzy conceded and took a long pull on her malt. "Can we go to the wildlife park next?"

The Doctor briefly contemplated visiting menageries of various times and places before deciding the one of Izzy's present time and place was probably for the best. She wouldn't want to get her lost or wake Yaz, Graham, and Ryan. Either one would be a bit thorny. "That sounds good. Oh we can take a bus! I like a bus and it will be much better than that time in Montgomery."

"Huh?" Izzy asked.

"That’s unimportant." The Doctor paid the tab—Thank you Graham—and they boarded a bus toward the Tropical Butterfly House, Wildlife and Falconry Centre.

Upon admittance, Izzy raced to Darwin the Caiman's enclosure. "I love Darwin," she said, eyes shining as she pressed up against the enclosure wall for a closer look. "I bet no one ever pushes him around."

"Does someone push you around Izzy?" The Doctor asked, the words gentle.

The girl shrugged.

"If somebody does, you can ask for help."

"Tried that. Doesn’t work," Izzy replied, shrinking in on herself, and wrapping her arms around her sides.

"It will today. Will with me," promised the Doctor, her eyes fierce.

"Yeah?"

The Doctor grinned. "I swear on Darwin, and he hasn't let you down. But if I do fix it, you have to make a promise."

Izzy glanced at her warily. "I knew it was too good to be true. What kind of promise?"

"You have to stop picking on all the other kids. They don't like being bullied either."

"Wait, you know about that and you took me for chips, and ice cream and Darwin. You still think I'm good? Really?"

The Doctor bent to Izzy's height, their eyes meeting. "Absolutely. Do we have a deal?"

Izzy threw her arms around the Doctor's neck. "Deal."

They toured the animals for a while after that exchange; their conversation and Izzy's spirit were both lighter as the Doctor dropped the girl back at an empty home.

Dealing with Izzy's bully proved slightly more complicated than Yaz's, but the Doctor knew that it worked when her memory of Yaz's speech to Willa changed.

"I think I know what it is that's making you sick. I had it at my school, where I am from. When Izzy Flint turned the whole class against me. Every day I'd wake up, feeling this... dread. Fear." 

"How did you get rid of it?" Willa asked, just as the Doctor remembered.

But Yaz's reply diverged. "I didn't. A few weeks in, Izzy found someone who taught her different. Something made her stop. And I told myself when I got bigger, I'd stand up to the Izzy Flints of this world. Get them to stop."

"I can't stand up to Becka. She'll have me tried for a witch. What am I meant to do?"

"Seems to me like you have two choices. Run as far away from here as possible, or stick with us. We'll stand up to Becka Savage and we'll make this place safe again," the Doctor said, savoring Yaz’s determined smile.

"Bullies are scared, Willa, or they're hurting. We’ll fix it if the problem is bigger than Becka. Or we’ll stop her if we have to. It’s what the Doctor does," Yaz assured her.

"It’s what we do," the Doctor corrected gently. Then she, Yaz, and a reluctant Willa charged back toward the mud.


End file.
